(Abarw.com/Allison Weirich File Photo) Jessica and Justin Green show off their gold medals May 13 at the 2011 3A state meet. The pair are 2 of 4 children of Rick & Carol green to excel in athletics at Liberty Hill High School.
By Merle Bertrand, Sportswriter
The one common thread that runs through the Holiday Season year after year is family.
Whether it’s spending time with immediate family or one’s extended clan, fondly recalling memories from years gone by or missing loved ones that are miles away on Christmas Day, family never means more than it does this time of year.
A more year-round constant in Liberty Hill is the support and passion those in the community display for sports and athletics at all levels.
While there are many families who embody the city’s love affair with sports, Liberty Hill athletics has been a part of the Green family’s life for the better part of two decades now – and counting.
After meeting at the University of Northern Iowa, Rick and Carol Green moved to the Liberty Hill area in 1985 after a Spring Break visit to Rick’s brother here. They married shortly after the move and began a family that now includes Jennifer (22), Justin (19), Jessica (17) and Jill (14). The Green Family’s athletic pedigree started with mom and dad.
“I think out of all my siblings, I was really the only one who did sports throughout my junior high and high school,” Carol recalled. “Softball, I started early on before middle school. Then from middle school on, I did volleyball, basketball, track and continued with softball.”
Rick, too, was a high school athlete who played football, basketball and track. Unknowingly setting a precedent for his future children, he tied for first in the pole vault at the (Iowa) State Meet his senior year.
“Probably track (was my favorite sport), because whatever I did or didn’t do, was on me,” he stated.
The Greens quickly discovered that Liberty Hill offered their own children a multitude of early choices when it came to athletics.
“They really took to (sports) naturally,” Carol explained. “In Liberty Hill, you’re able to do it so early. From the time they’re five years old, get them involved in the community leagues at least, starting off with softball or basketball. And that’s what we did with the kids. We just signed them up for it.
“They pretty much liked every sport they did and they continued to do it until they decided which one was their favorite or which ones they were better at.”
Jennifer, a 2007 LHHS graduate, was the family’s trailblazer. Along the way, she gained a unique perspective in scholastic sports.
“(In) junior high and all the way up, I did all sports. But in high school, I just went sports cheerleading and that’s what I did all four years.
“I just liked (cheerleading) as a whole, traveling to the football games and being around to support all the different sports,” Jennifer continued. “It was a little bit different; kind of a different side of it rather than playing, I guess.”
While Jennifer cheered for the Panthers’ memorable 2006 Class 3A state championship football team, her younger brother Justin (19) reached for the stratosphere like his dad with a 2010 state gold medal in the high jump.
“Very few people get to accomplish this and I had been working to get there since I was a freshman,” Justin stated. “I missed going to the state meet my sophomore and junior years by one spot, so I was determined to make it there my senior year. On top of that, winning it was the best feeling ever.
“I love the feeling of winning and accomplishing a goal as a team,” added Justin, who also played for Coach Barry Boren’s Runnin’ Panthers basketball team.
Now a freshman at Colorado State University, Justin tried to follow Jennifer’s example. “Earlier on, when (Jennifer) was involved in sports, she did as many sports as she could and did her best in all of them. (Like Jennifer), I did the best I could in all my sports and was very passionate about all my sports.”
Just as Jennifer had done for him, Justin tried to be a role model for his younger sisters, Jessica and Jill.
“I was always willing to give them positive advice to help them improve,” Justin offered. “If you work hard and you’re dedicated, you will achieve success, like what Jessica and Jill are doing now in high school.”
“I like everything about (sports),” relayed Jessica, now a senior at LHHS. A 2010 state champion high hurdler and bronze medalist in the high jump, as well as a mainstay on the Lady Panthers’ basketball team, Jessica explained why.
“I love competing,” stated the current LHHS senior. “I love being around all my teammates. We have a lot of fun.
“I really enjoy playing sports because I know if I wasn’t, I’d be super bored and I wouldn’t know what else to do,” she added with a chuckle.
With Justin off at college, it’s now Jessica’s turn to be the role model – a new experience after several years’ worth of sibling rivalry with her older brother.
“Yeah, she and I were always trying to one-up the other,” Justin admitted. “I miss it, but…we will (soon) be training together once again.”
“It was good he was there to help push me, but I think I’ll be able to push myself and motivate myself to get me back to State,” Jessica predicted.
As for her advice to the youngest Green sibling: “Always play hard, do your best and have fun.”
“They helped me on some things, but it’s kind of a struggle to live up to what they do and everything,” sighed Jill, a freshman just beginning her sports odyssey at LHHS. Like the rest of the family, Jill, who played JV volleyball and is now playing freshman basketball, revels in sports.
“I like to be competitive with most of my friends, because all of my friends are on my basketball team. It’s just fun playing with them and competing with them and having fun and winning games with them.”
With four kids staggered roughly two to three years apart, it’s been a challenge for Rick and Carol to keep up with all the kids’ games, meets, and competitions on the calendar, although it’s a challenge they clearly seem to relish.
“It’s tough,” Carol admitted, “especially when we had Justin and Jessica in high school and then Jill in the junior high or whatever. It’s just trying to make it to the different locations to each person’s game if you could; every game or as many as you could go to. So it was tough, but we worked it out.”
“It’s extremely challenging to keep up because I have my own business,” Rick agreed. “We’re having to try to coordinate something all the time. I just really like watching the kids play sports.”
“I really enjoy all of the sporting events and I don’t want to miss it,” Carol added. “I make it fun. That’s probably my hobby. I don’t really have a hobby, so attending my kids’ sporting events and doing all that is probably my hobby.”
Rick, whose hobby is winning track championships as a Modified stock car driver, and Carol also agree on the importance athletics play in kids’ development.
“It’s extremely important because it keeps them busy and on the right track,” Rick maintained.
“It teaches them a lot of community,” Carol agreed. “It teaches them leadership responsibilities, the whole aspect of coordination and everything; learning to win, learning to lose, the excitement of competition is there; the lasting friendships that you have.
“I know that with my kids, some of their closest friends and probably all of their really close friends in high school are the ones they have played sports with since they were little. So I think it’s very important.”
Jennifer added: “I guess because we’ve been in sports ever since we were as young as we could be, in elementary or kindergarten, I guess we’ve always just loved it.”
Now at the peak of her high school career, Jessica understands that Liberty Hill is a town that clearly loves its sports and she reciprocates that affection.
“Everyone that comes out to (support) sports, it’s great. We really appreciate all the support that we get and everything.”
It’s impossible to know for sure, of course, but it’s easy to predict that the Green Family will still support Liberty Hill sports, even after Jill graduates, (hopefully with her sought-after volleyball scholarship).
For now, however, “We’ve kind of just encouraged our kids to do the sports that they like and then kind of pursue their dreams with that,” Rick summed up.
It’s the kind of support that Rick and Carol Green have offered their kids, and their kids have offered each other, since the Green family’s earliest involvement with Liberty Hill sports.
After all, isn’t that what family is all about?
